Bombjack
It seems Bombjack's at no.1 today and it's another hugely popular game that i've never been that fond off. I played it again recently and it's quick, responsive and works very well, but i found it utterly boring for some reason. Can somebody please sell it to me, what's so good about it?
I have a strange aversion to popular games. I must be missing something. But then again it wasn't in Stuart Campell's top 100 so it can't be that good...
I have a strange aversion to popular games. I must be missing something. But then again it wasn't in Stuart Campell's top 100 so it can't be that good...
Post edited by Rebelstar without a cause on
Comments
I like it, but I always find it a little samey. I sort of want it to bring new enemies or new backgrounds.
I've been playing the arcade version on my turnarcade :smile: and that also leaves me cold.
So, over to you fans of the game to sell it to more than one of us!
There are plenty of stages, and the difficulty curve of them is spot on. In the early stages you'll be using your knowledge of which bombs spark in which sequence to go for speed runs, but later stages can be all about just grabbing bombs as quickly as possible to get the hell out of there before the ufos start wizzing about (unless you're a better player than me I guess!)
But then when the stages start repeating (to different backdrops), the enemies' speed also starts increasing and you have to think on your feet. Although regular enemies appear in predictable sequences, the evil egyptian bird will constantly respawn to a random corner of the stage when killed. This gives the game enough of a random factor to be a real arcade-style challenge, and not just a memory, theoretical planning and repetitive input test that can be found in something like Solomon's Key.
Also not blowing my own horn here but head on over to the Speccy tour to check out my leading BJ run of 1.5 million (fnar fnar!)
but as said already , the order you pick things up in.. and of course gliding slowly past the enemies :)
I remember buying it in games world in king st. Hammersmith.. how sad am I .hehe
The great thing is the level design and learning the placements of the lit bombs. Learning the hovering and mega-jump mechanics. Learning where and when bonus points would appear (in the Arcade game, you had an indicator that built up when you collected lit bombs and if you collected 8 bombs, then the power up circle would appear).
It also allowed you to play in a simple way for low points or to play more skillfully for more points (the lit bomb trail). All the time you have to skillfully negotiate enemies that can appear anywhere.
It was also fair.
When enemies appear, they can appear on top of you, or in your path. If this happens, you don't just die. Initially, enemies don't kill you. You have about a second to get out of the way. This means that there are very few unfair deaths in Bomb Jack. It was built to be enjoyed superficially, or to be mastered by experts but at all times being fair.
The Arcade game is in my top 5 games ever. The Spectrum conversion is excellent, but I do recommend you play the Arcade game for the pure experience.
Download RZX:
http://www.homeactionreplay.org/search.php?gamename=Bomb%20Jack&tourney=65
Download Snapshot to use:
http://www.zxspectrum.homeactionreplay.org/tour/tour10/sr.php
But I can almost for sure guarantee that recordings with better scores will appear. Not from me, but from other players, and I'm sure Lebowsk1 will improve his score a lot before the Tour is over. So stay tuned :)
BTW, it's not to late to sign up, and join the fun :)
Eh? You bought a Master System because of the Amiga's graphics?
Yeah. Well originaly i wanted a NES but my mum and dad were convinced you needed to run it through the vcr to make it work so a year later i got the Master System.
Have to disagree with you there - there are many unfair deaths in Bombjack.
Never been a fan.
Brilliant game that still plays well today.
and scrabble / make a chip / stonkers / chequered flag ?
Never played Make-a-Chip - would love to but don't seem to be able to find a copy anywhere.. Never mind. :grin:
Re: Bombjack - I have good memories of playing this game - took a while to get the hang of it but remember getting quite practised in collecting the sparking bomb chains.
I certainly wouldn't have put it at #1 (or even in my top #20), but I'm sure the very presence of this thread will now cause it to plummet unexpectedly..! :razz:
Surely one vote per game per registered member wouldn't be that hard to implement. Cos as it stands that list is meaningless.
Must admit theres been so many great games already in 2010 (plus a few others previewed in that other thread) its going to be very very tough to judge, think 2010 might be the best year for homebrew games ever ?
Bombjack, to me, is like Paperboy, Gauntlet, Tempest, etc, in that it just never took hold of my attention in the way that some games do. Nothing wrong with the game, it just doesn't "do it" for me.
Yeah good game , not a game I particularly like , but I can appreciate that it is good quality and very playable for someone who likes this type of game.
(inspired by this: ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/screens/load/b/gif/BombJackEditor.gif )
I definitely think it deserves a position as high as number 1 because you won't find a better action game. It moves incredibly smoothly, and as one poster said it is also very fair.
(someone else came on here and said there were many unfair deaths, but without actually being specific about what kind of deaths you mean, how are we supposed to debate that? The only one I can think of is that the egyptian bird will spawn randomly to somewhere which screws you up, but you can plan around that and even bait the bird away from where you need to go if neccesary)